Intrastriatal pre-treatment with L-NAME protects rats from diquat neurotoxcity

Introduction: Contact herbicide diquat (DQ), redox cycling compound, mediates its systemic toxicity throughout the enlarged production of free radicals. Target organs are liver and kidney in humans. To-date, the mechanism of DQ-induced neurotoxicity has not been rationalized. Objective: The objectives of the study were to examine the ability of DQ to induce oxidative stress (OS) and/or nitrosative stress (NS) upon intrastriatal (i.s.) administration and to investigate the role of nitric oxide (NO x ) using NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), a non-selective inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in the pretreatment of DQ i.s. administration. Material and Methods: The experiment was conducted on Wistar rats, randomly divided in experimental groups, receiving